


It Takes a Village

by Livelovelupin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Hogwarts Sixth Year, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Fest 2020, Process of Becoming an Animagus, unestablished relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28982286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livelovelupin/pseuds/Livelovelupin
Summary: "The truth is, Sirius has been thinking about ways to help Remus ever since the first time he noticed something wrong. Even before he knew about the lycanthropy. He’d watch Remus come back to their dorm room after a day or two (or seven, which was the longest time Remus had spent in the infirmary ward away from them) and all he knew was that something was wrong and that he needed to fix it."
Relationships: Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32
Collections: Marauders Fest 2020





	It Takes a Village

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Sirius, James, and Peter are able to successfully turn themselves into Animagi for the first time.

“Remus is onto us,” James whispers, putting his bag on top of Sirius’ essay. Sirius goes to protest, but James keeps talking a mile a minute. “I was just talking with McGonagall about my detention because she let me postpone it for Quidditch practice, which honestly, bless her soul. I don’t deserve that, she’s the best— anyway! Anyways, Remus was sitting on the other side of the classroom and he was staring at me! Into my soul with his yellowish eyes and he’s onto us!” James sits down on the chair in front of Sirius mid-rant, and he’s skipping breaths. “He knows.”

Sirius touches the mandrake leaf in his mouth with his tongue and he wonders how James’ doesn’t fall out every time he speaks. “How the hell is your mandrake leaf still in your mouth?”

“Sirius!” James exclaims.

“James!” Sirius mocks, and he clamps his mouth shut because the leaf almost fell out. He clears his throat and decides to speak in monotones only for the next 28 days. “James, we literally just put the leaves in our mouths this morning. Not even 12 hours ago. What would Remus be onto, exactly?”

“Okay, you need to practice talking with that thing in your mouth because I saw it like, three times. You have to be more discreet!”

Sirius puts the leaf under his tongue. “Better?”

“It sounds like your tongue is swollen.”

“Where do you have it?” Sirius asks, cradling James’ face and trying to open his mouth.

James pushes Sirius’ hands away. “Stop!” he says, but he opens his mouth. Sirius tries to spot the mandrake but he can’t until James says, “Behind my bottom teeth, in the braces.”

Sirius finally spots it, lodged in between the back of James’ teeth and the metal. “Ugh. That’s gross.”

“Well, at least I can actually talk. Do you think Remus knows?”

“How would he know?” Sirius asks, but it doesn’t come out clear. He’s moving the mandrake in his mouth, trying to figure out what to do with it.

“I feel bad,” James confesses, and Sirius knows that it’s been about that all along. “I just— I don’t like keeping secrets. Especially not from Remus. I feel very antsy.”

“You know how Remus is,” Sirius tries to reason, summoning the tiny mirror James uses to check his teeth after meals from his bag. “How do you think he’d react when we tell him that we’re planning on becoming Animagi?”

“He’d tell us that it’s dangerous and that we shouldn’t because we’re already helping him and— I can still see your mandrake leaf.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Sirius asks, annoyed. “Anyway, Remus doesn’t know. And he can’t know, okay? If we want this to work, it needs to stay a secret.”

James rolls his eyes. “Do you not have a conscience? You don’t mind keeping stuff from Remus?’

“I do! But we’re doing the right thing. My conscience tells me that it’s not fucking fair that full moons are a thing, and that we could help Remus if this works our, and this can only work if Remus doesn’t know. Lying is okay, sometimes, and don’t look at me like that! It is. The ends justify the means and all that.”

“They really don’t,” James says, and then he scrunches his nose. “Why the fuck is your hand in your mouth right now?”

Sirius scoffs, and drool dribbles down his chin. “I’m trying to fold the stupid leaf. Do you think we can use a sticking charm to make it stay?”

James’ eyes gleam. “That sounds interesting, but—”

“But Remus is the one that’s good at charms. Fuck. Okay, can we give me fake braces for a month?”

James raises an eyebrow. “Braces that disappear after 28 days? Isn’t that suspicious?”

“We can say I got over them, whatever. And it’s a lot less suspicious than seeing a green leaf every time I open my mouth.”

“Touché,” James says. “I think Peter can transfigure one of our retainers to something resembling braces— don’t even think about arguing. We’ll Scourgify it.”

“That’s so fucking disgusting.”

“For Remus.”

“Oh, fuck you. I know that. Why can’t we transfigure something that hasn’t been in either of your mouths? I’ll get you metal wire or something.”

James grins, and he must have taken the mandrake leaf from behind his teeth because Sirius can see it. “This is fun.”

“So fun,” Sirius says dryly, but he can admit that it is fun. Thrilling. Marauder-esque.

**….**

Sirius is the one that suggested this in the first place. It had been swirling around in his mind for a while before he even mentioned it offhandedly to James. It was a bizarre idea that seemed to get less and less bizarre (and more and more brilliant) the more Sirius thought about it.

The truth is, Sirius has been thinking about ways to help Remus ever since the first time he noticed something wrong. Even before he knew about the lycanthropy. He’d watch Remus come back to their dorm room after a day or two (or seven, which was the longest time Remus had spent in the infirmary ward away from them) and all he knew was that something was wrong and that he needed to fix it.

Sirius likes thinking that he’s the one who figured out that Remus is a werewolf, but it was actually James. And ever since then and before, Sirius has wanted to help.

He was overly ambitious at first. They all were. The marauders were going to be the inventors of the cure of lycanthropy (at thirteen, which was why it would be so brilliant, James said.) That didn’t happen (obviously), which the prepubescent marauders blamed on limited resources and nothing else. Sirius still wants to do that. And Sirius is cocky, which usually translates to brilliant. He doesn't doubt that they will. Someday. But until then, this has to work. It _has_ to.

“Some of these have to be metaphorical,” Sirius whispers. Remus is sleeping in their dorm room (he’s always exhausted after the full moon) and Sirius doesn’t want to wake him up. Peter and James are both in Sirius’ bed, and the curtains are drawn. It’s entirely dark save the light coming out of Peter’s wand shining on the stacks of parchment they stole from the restricted section. (A long story that boils down to: invisibility cloak saves the day! Again.) “They have to be. ‘Add a silver teaspoon of dew from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched…’ What?”

The idea of becoming Animagi? Ingenues. The actual process seems a little impossible, though. They’ve gone over the steps a thousand and one times but nothing’s gotten any clearer. Sirius thinks they’ve started already (with the whole mandrake leaf fiasco) hoping stuff gets cleared up along the way. Not ideal, but if they’d continue waiting until everything was crystal clear, they’d never actually begin.

James shakes his head beside him. “When have we ever seen metaphoric writing in potion instructions before, Sirius?”

"Yeah, well. Go find dew that's never been seen by a mortal before."

"Actually,” Peter points to the parchment, “it's 'from a place—'"

"Not the point, Peter,” Sirius says, rubbing his temples. His head is starting to hurt.

"We can make this work,” James says, and Sirius knows James well enough to know that he truly believes that. There’s no false bravado or feigned confidence. Not yet, anyway. “We're brilliant. We'll make it work. I think we can find something that works for that in The Forbidden Forest. Hagrid can help us, maybe?”

“We’ll go ask Hagrid first thing tomorrow,” Peter says.

“We should go talk to McGonagall,” Sirius says. He suggested it before, and James objected every single time. He knows that James will object now, too.

“We definitely shouldn’t.” Bingo! “She’ll suspect!”

“James. I don’t think—”

“We don’t have to ask her,” says Peter, and before Sirius can interject, he continues. “I mean, _we_ don't have to do it. We can have someone else ask her for us.”

“But surely they’d get suspicious?” James says, biting his lip. “I mean, I’d have questions.”

No one says anything for a while. Until Peter says, “Maybe— I was thinking we could ask Dorcas. I think she’d help us.”

“Oh, I love Dorcas,” Sirius says. “She’s the best. I think she’d let it go if we tell her it’s a secret, too.”

“I don’t know, you guys,” James says, skimming over the parchment again. “That feels too— exploit-y. I don’t want to use her.”

“We’ll tell her all we can without actually telling her, I promise. Do you think she wouldn’t help if she knew the whole truth? That it’s for Remus?” Sirius asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course she’d help, she loves Remus. But we’ll be as transparent as ever with her, okay? As transparent as we can without giving it away. Clear?”

Sirius grins. “Crystal. I’ll get her flowers.”

“Oh, fuck you,” James says, smacking Sirius’ head. “But that’d make me feel better. Let’s get her flowers.”

“We need to start writing things down.” Peter summons a piece of paper and a quill, wandlessly, and Sirius is impressed. Peter writes as he talks. “Okay, we already did the mandrake part. We have to keep them in our mouths from full moon to full moon, so about 27 days from now. We’re going to need some glass vials and a few ingredients for the potion—”

“Hagrid will help with that,” James says. “We can even ask him where to get the death moth thing.”

“We can. Early tomorrow, Remus will still be asleep. We can meet up.”

“You two meet up with Hagrid, and I’ll talk to Dorcas,” Sirius says. “That way we won’t take as long to come back. I don’t want Remus getting suspicions.”

“This seems like a plan, gents.” James smiles. “Oh. And we’ll get something to transfigure for you, Sirius. It looks like you have lettuce in your teeth.”

“Fuck you. Get out of my bed.”

“Wait, before we go,” Peter says, folding the piece of paper. “What do you think your Animagus forms will be?”

James flicks Peter’s forehead. “Oi! Don’t you dare answer that question—” he looks at Sirius. “—the both of you.”

“As long as my Animagus isn’t prone to getting fleas—”

“And as long as mine doesn’t have whiskers—”

“Stop!” James exclaims, tugging on his hair. “You’re going to jinx it. Stop talking about it. Stop thinking about it.”

“Honestly, Jamie,” Sirius says, tugging on James’ hand so that he lets go of his hair. “Fine, fine. We’ll stop.”

“Do you want to know what I think you’ll be, James?” Peter asks, and James’ eyes widen so fast Sirius can’t help but laugh.

“I absolutely do fucking _not_.” James’ voice is loud, and they hear Remus groan from the other side of the room.

“Shit,” James says under his breath, then, louder, “Remus? You’re awake?”

“James,” Remus croaks. “You’re awake?” His voice is scratchy and tired.

“I got up to get some water,” James says, and he and Peter get out of Sirius’ bed slowly. Remus’ curtains are still drawn. “Do you need anything, Re? Did you take the potion Pomfrey gave you?” Remus doesn’t answer and James continues talking, “I’ll bring it to you, okay? Don’t get out of bed.”

“Thank you, James,” Remus says, and it sounds like he’s dosing off. Sirius wants to kiss him (and _oh_ is that a thought. Sirius doesn’t dwell on it because he’s tired and night thoughts don’t count.)

Sirius draws the curtains around his bed and lays down, thinking about how much he wants this to work, for Remus’ sake (and for his sake, honestly. Full moons are making _his_ hair turn gray, and he isn’t the one that transforms into a full-fledged werewolf on them), hyperaware of the mandrake leaf in his mouth. He tries to fall asleep.

….

Sirius looks at the make-shift bouquet of yellow flowers in his hands, and he thinks that he maybe, possibly, could have thought this out better.

He slept horribly the night before, and not that Sirius would ever admit it, but he’s nervous. It’s weird because Sirius doesn’t get nervous, not about the possibility of things. But this is making him nervous and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

He woke up at an ungodly hour (before both Peter and James) and couldn’t go back to bed. He gave up and decided to go look for some flowers, and he found a few scattered near Hagrid’s hut and on the outskirts of The Forbidden Forest. Some of the flowers had definitely seen better days, but when Sirius tied them together (with a red ribbon he found in the Gryffindor commons room—he thinks it belongs to Lily and he hopes that Dorcas won’t recognize it), he made sure to make the prettier ones more visible and hide the wilted ones.

Now he’s standing in The Great Hall, looking at the bouquet of yellow flowers and biting his lip. Dorcas, alongside Marlene and Lily, is sitting at the Gryffindor dining table. Lily is talking, Dorcas is nodding, and Marlene is half asleep on Dorcas’ shoulders.

Sirius doesn’t really know how to get to the whole “Please help McGonagall help us?” point, so he takes a deep breath and starts walking towards where the girls are sitting, not thinking about it too much, summoning every last bit of Gryffindor courage he supposedly has.

“Good morning!” he says as soon as he reaches them, and maybe it’s a little too cheery for this early in the morning. Marlene cringes and Lily stops talking. They’re looking at him funny, all three of them, and Sirius is not sure if it’s because of the flowers or unusual cheeriness.

“Morning,” Dorcas says, smiling slightly. “Those are… pretty flowers.”

Sirius wouldn’t really describe what he’s holding as pretty, but this gives him the perfect opening. “They are! I got them for you, actually.” he more or less shoves them in Dorcas’ lap. His hands are sweaty.

Dorcas’ mouth forms an ‘o’, but she recovers quickly. “That’s so sweet of you! Thank you, Sirius, these are lovely.”

Marlene scowls. “Why are you giving my girlfriend flowers, Black?”

“Is that my headband?” Lily asks.

“Of course it isn’t, Lily, I’m not tasteless,” Sirius lies. “And Dorcas, can I talk to you for a bit?”

“Is this a confession of love?” Marlene asks, “because if it is a confession of love, god help me Sirius I will—"

“I doubt that it is, Marls,” Dorcas says, looking at Sirius. “Right?”

Sirius nods. “No love confessions. I promise. I just… really need to talk to you about, you know, something. Please.”

“Of course,” Dorcas says, her eyes softening. Marlene’s eyes soften, as well. Sirius wonders if he truly sounds that pathetic.

“I’m pretty sure that this is my headband, Sirius,” Lily says, and Sirius thinks it’s because she wants to make them laugh. It works.

Dorcas gets up, and before following Sirius, she takes a flower out of the make-shift bouquet (one of the prettier ones) and gives it to Marlene. “It matches your hair.”

“Is this a love confession?” Marlene asks, her eyes tired but bright.

Dorcas grins and kisses Marlene’s cheek. Sirius might cry, just a little bit, because he can think of someone he wants to give flowers to, and his heart hurts.

When Sirius and Dorcas are near the entrance of The Great Hall, Sirius blurts, “I wasn’t trying to pressure you with the flowers, you know. I want to ask a favor but you can more than refuse, I don’t want you to feel bad about the flowers because now I’m thinking that you might think that you have to agree and you don’t, truly, the flowers were a stupid— “

“Oh my god, take a breath, love,” Dorcas says, and she stops walking. Sirius stops walking too and he turns around, so now he’s facing her. They’re standing in front of the big oak doors and nobody is in hearing distance. “I don’t mean this in an unkind way, truly, but I don’t think those flowers would’ve pressured me anyway.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. I truly did only pick out the pretty one. Pretty in comparison, I mean,” Sirius says, feeling sheepish.

Dorcas laughs. “They’re very... charming.”

“If you say so.”

“What can I help you with?” Dorcas asks, smiling.

“I was wondering— we were wondering, actually, Peter and James and I, if you could maybe ask Minerva a few questions about turning into an Animagus? The process, I mean.” Dorcas raises an eyebrow and Sirius continues, “because we’ve gone over the steps and some seem… vague. And, you know, for future reference, of course— “

“Uh-huh.”

Sirius clears his throat. “We want everything to be as clear as possible because, as I’m sure you know— “

“You do not want to become half-animal, half-human creature things.”

“Precisely, yes,” Sirius says. “when we try it out in the future. The ‘after we graduate’ future, of course. If you don’t want to— “

“Of course I can help! I’m assuming you don’t want to ask her yourselves because…?”

“Because, well, not that there’s anything to suspect, really, because this is for future reference, if we ever choose to, you know. But we are aware that it might raise some suspicions. Especially because we are who we are, you know?” Sirius tries to laugh.

Dorcas is staring at him intently. “Okay, I know that something is going on here, and if it is what I think it is, then you guys are truly more unhinged than I ever thought you were.”

“It really isn’t an ego thing, if that’s what you think it is. It’s— Well. I don’t think I can tell you what—"

Dorcas looks like she’s just had an epiphany. “Stop talking. It’s for future reference. Of course. Yes, sure, no problem, Sirius.”

Sirius blinks. “Uhm. Dorcas. Do you— “

“Shh! Stop talking. Yes, I’ll ask her for you, okay? Write the stuff that isn’t clear down so that—"

“I already have,” Sirius says, pulling a piece of folded parchment from his pocket. This is weird. “Dorcas, really, is—"

Dorcas snatches the parchment from Sirius’ hand and she looks at him intently. “You guys are wonderful friends.”

“Huh?”

“Ignore me. I’ll meet you after classes, okay? I would’ve talked to her by then.” Dorcas starts walking back to the dining table.

“Thank you!” Sirius calls out after her, and she doesn’t really acknowledge him. She sits back down and immediately starts talking with Marlene and Lily.

Sirius doesn’t really know how to feel, exactly. That went a little too smoothly.

He runs into James and Peter in front of their dorm’s door, and they’re holding a bunch of plants with very distinct leaves and Sirius counts twelve glass vials between the two of them.

“Hagrid has a spider friend that makes sure a good portion of The Forbidden Forest doesn’t get stepped in,” Peter starts. “James is afraid of spiders so we can go check it out next full moon. For the death moth chrysalis part, Hagrid thinks that there might be some in Filch’s office, which would be awfully convenient for us, wouldn’t it? I don’t know what we’ll do if there aren’t any, but let’s not think about ways to cross bridges if we’re not sure there’ll be any bridges in the first place, you know? Also! Here are your 'braces'. Not perfect but I think they’ll work well enough.” Peter says all this in one breath.

“Sounds like you guys had a more productive morning than I did,” Sirius says, putting the retainer concoction over his bottom teeth. It is a little loose but he could make it work. He lodges the mandrake leaf in it. “Thank you, Pete, I think this’ll work. I picked out flowers and Dorcas said yes, if you’re wondering.”

“Sounds like a proposal.”

“A love confession, actually,” Sirius snorts. “What’s up with the plants?”

James groans. “It’s all different types of tea. We helped Hagrid organize his tea pantry and I think he was too focused to actually register what he was telling us. He gave us tea to try it out. Holy hell I feel bad.”

“We’ll get him flowers, it’s fine,” Sirius says.

“Don’t be an ass.”

“I’m not being an ass!” Sirius exclaims, and he doesn’t feel like the mandrake leaf will fall out. “Oh, I love being able to fucking speak. Thank you, Peter.”

Peter waves him off. “I think Remus will wake up soon.”

“Let’s not act weird,” James says. Sirius snorts, and he wants to point out that James looks like he wants to pursue a career in fortune-telling, what with the tea leaves and glass vials, but he shuts his mouth when James starts glaring. “I’m serious. We’ll talk more tonight, maybe go through Filch’s stuff and get it over with?”

“It’s a date.” Sirius winks, and maybe he deserves getting pushed.

Peter and Sirius shove the glass vials in their bags (all twelve of them— James says they’ll break most of them anyway) and they head to The Great Hall, while James goes to wake Remus up and prepare his bag because he refuses to do it at night.

For doing all of this for Remus, Sirius hasn’t actually spent time with him in a while and he’s bitter about it. When Remus shuffles in with James after a while, heavy eyelids and heavier breaths, he sits down next to Sirius, like he always does. He smiles tiredly when Sirius hands him buttered toast and apple juice (Remus is honestly more asleep than awake at that point—very endearing), like he always does, and maybe the universe is reminding Sirius why he’s doing this in the first place. Whatever. 

….

Sirius has never really wished for time to go faster. Maybe while the full moon is out and clear in the sky, but for nothing else. But oh, what Sirius wouldn’t give for this class to be over. He’s not really nervous anymore, he just doesn’t know a lot of things right now (like what Dorcas found out or if the death moth chrysalis is in Filch’s office) and he just wants to know to decide what to do next. When the class finally ends, Sirius collects his things in a hurry and heads out to find Dorcas. He is rummaging through his bag, trying to fit his Charms textbook next to six vials, when someone pulls at his forearm. Sirius knows it’s Dorcas before even looking up.

“Hey, Dorcas!” Sirius says, and she just smiles and pushes him toward a broom closet.

“I swear to god, Marlene is going to break my nose,” Sirius says when Dorcas closes the door, and she laughs loudly. “I’m assuming your day’s been nice?”

“My day hasn’t been bad,” Dorcas says, handing Sirius a stack of papers. “I asked her everything you’d written down— she also said some stuff that seemed pretty important, like silver teaspoons means 100% silver, and you should yank the hair from your head, not cut it for the potion. It’s all written down. I—”

“How the hell did you write all of this?” Sirius asks, flipping through the pages. “This reads like an actual conversation.”

“Marlene got me a self-writing quill because I couldn’t really write after breaking my wrist,” Dorcas says, grinning. “It was writing away in my bag while we were talking. Pretty neat, huh?”

“Ah. So fucking neat. Thank you so—”

“Now give me the glass vials.”

“Huh?”

Dorcas opens Sirius’ bag and takes out three vials. “Why do you have six?”

“We have twelve, actually— how did—”

“James and Peter aren’t discreet, are they?” Dorcas asks. “Lily suggested we put them on our windowsill and expose them to moon rays because, you know, our dorm gets more moon rays than yours.” Dorcas coughs.

“No, it doesn’t,” Sirius says, not bothering to hide the fact that they were planning on becoming Animagi anymore. 

“Uhm, yes, it does,” Dorcas stresses. “Also, I feel like you guys are clumsy. Especially Remus. He seems…very clumsy.”

“He really isn’t clumsy. He has bad eyesight and refuses to wear glasses, so he doesn’t see what’s in front of him all that we—oh.” Sirius stops talking. Dorcas is looking at him intently. Sirius hasn’t thought about it, but empty glass vials on a windowsill for a month would surely make Remus suspicious. “You know what, that’s so true. I didn’t really… think about how clumsy Remus is.”

“Well, you’re lucky we did, eh?” Dorcas’ eyes are very kind. “You guys are insane.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sirius says. “Thank you. So much. You’re a lifesaver, I—”

“Just tell me— us, Lily and Marlene and I, if you need anything else, yeah?” Dorcas says, and she exits the broom closet.

“We’ll get you guys prettier flowers, I promise!” Sirius shouts after her, and he can hear her laughing from the end of the hallway.

Sirius shoves the stack of paper in his bag and when he gets out, he manages to run head-first into Remus. The glass in his bag makes some noise and Sirius hopes Remus doesn’t notice. “Re! I haven’t seen you today,” Sirius says, taking Remus’ bag from him— Remus halfheartedly struggles but Sirius knows it’s heavy and his arms hurt. He carries both bags and they start walking toward The Great Hall.

“Is James okay?” Remus asks, and Sirius is going to kill James.

“Why wouldn’t he be okay?”

“What’s wrong with your teeth?” Remus asks.

“Nothing is wrong with my— oh! My teeth! James told me they were crooked, and apparently this would help.”

“Your teeth are fine, Sirius.”

“Why, thank you, Remus. I’ll tell James you said that. Why is James not okay, again?”

Remus shrugs. “He’s been acting weird. Around me. Did I do something?” he asks, biting his lip. “I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t think so. Nothing I know of, at least. Like this morning, he was just… so weird.”

“I don’t think so, Re,” Sirius says. “We can talk to him if you want?”

“God, no,” Remus says, shaking his head. “I’m probably thinking too much about this.”

“You know how James is,” Sirius says, chuckling awkwardly. “Let me just go put out things away and I’ll be right back. Save me a seat?”

Remus’ smile is the last thing Sirius sees before heading to their dorm room. James and Peter are both already there.

“What the hell!” Sirius flicks James’ forehead. “Stop acting weird around Remus. He’s noticing! And you’re making him feel bad. You were all like, “Let’s not act weird” this morning but now— _Fucking Merlin,_ what the hell is that?”

“Death’s-head Hawk Moths in their tiny houses,” James says, grinning, holding the jar very close to Sirius. “The chrysalis we need for the potion— we have a full fucking jar. Well, technically we have four but—”

Sirius blinks. “Where did you—”

“We didn’t!” James exclaims. “We talked to Hagrid about them yesterday, remember? He thought we were interested in raising them—”

“Raising them?”

“He thinks they’re very nice,” James says. “He told us to be careful and gave us this.”

“Where did Hagrid get them?”

“From Filch! Saved us so much trouble. He says they’ll take a while to hatch, and I asked him if they’d hatch before the next full moon. He looked at me like I’ve grown another head but said it was unlikely!” James grins. “We can work with ‘unlikely’!”

“I went to Hogsmeade,” Peter says.

“When the hell did you go to Hogsmeade?”

“I told Flitwick I was feeling sick, it doesn’t matter. I got flowers!” Peter says, gesturing to James’ bed. Two very pretty rose bouquets were there. “You should write on the cards. Your handwriting’s fancy.”

“My handwriting is fancy, too!” James says.

“Eh.”

“I will Pete, promise.”

“Can I sit next to Remus at dinner?” James asks. He puts the moth jar under his bed, and he starts rambling. “I have been acting weird. I didn’t mean to. I think I feel bad that we’re doing this behind his back, but I do understand why we need to. I’ll tell Remus I was sulking about something.”

Sirius rolls his eyes. “Sure. He seemed really upset about it.”

“Okay, okay! No need to make me feel worse, you bitch.”

Sirius laughs. “I was just trying to make you see sense, Jamie. You go first and Peter and I will follow. Don’t want to raise suspicions. I’ll tell you more, but Dorcas did ask McGonagall for us. Quick question, do you think they know? Lily and Marlene and Dorcas, I mean.”

“Lily definitely knows,” James says.

“Has she said anything to you?”

“I mean, not really, no. But we figured it out and Lily is smarter than us.”

“Fair enough,” Sirius says. “Dorcas definitely knows, too. And they’ll put the containers on their windowsill because—”

“Clumsiness!” Peter exclaims. “We met up with Lily and Marlene on the way here.”

“Come next full moon, the only thing we’ll have to wait for is the storm. And it’ll be February. There’s a storm every other day. This is going really well, don’t you—”

James put his hands over Sirius’ mouth. “You fucking jinx! You’re not allowed to talk anymore.”

Sirius yanks James’ hands off. “Just go!”

….

The next few weeks pass unremarkably, and that’s really more than any of them could’ve hoped for. The most exciting thing that happened was probably trying to get into the girls’ dormitory to hide the flowers there (they weren’t able to do it. In the end, they just left the bouquet in the common room)

It’s two days before the full moon and Sirius has been stalking his brother for the last few hours. It’s not because he wants to, really, but he needs a favor and he doesn’t want to ask in front of the apparently three thousand people Regulus spends his time around.

Regulus is finally alone close to midnight in the library. He’s sitting with an open book and wayward pieces of parchment on the table in front of him, and he looks tired. Sirius clears his throat loudly while browsing a bookshelf near and Regulus flinches.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

Sirius doesn’t respond. He drags a chair up to Regulus’ table and sits down. “How are you?”

Regulus rolls his eyes, and he goes back to writing on the parchment in front of him. “I’m splendid.” He doesn’t say anything else.

“Don’t you want to know how I’ve been?”

Regulus’ grip on his quill tightens. “Not necessarily, no.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Oh, don’t be so sure,” Regulus snaps, looking up. His hair is longer than Sirius remembers and it kind of feels like Regulus is picking on a scab over Sirius’ heart. It hurts, and maybe Regulus realizes that because he sighs. “How’ve you been?”

“Splendid,” Sirius says. He hasn’t really spoken to Regulus lately, not since getting disowned. He suddenly wishes he has.

Regulus puts his quill down. “Do you— did you need anything?”

“Silver.”

Regulus blinks. “Huh?”

“Three silver spoons,” Sirius says, clearing his throat. “Pure silver. Ideally today?”

“I don’t think I’m following.”

“I’ve been to the Slytherin common room before, I know how pompous you guys are. Surely you can get me some pure silver spoons, Reg.”

“Three of them?” Regulus asks dryly.

“Yes.”

“How the hell have you been in the Slytherin common room?”

Sirius grins. “You know me better than that. You think I wouldn’t find a way?”

“Careful, there,” Regulus says, closing the book in front of him and putting it in his bag. “You’ll levitate if your head gets any bigger.”

“Oi! Regulus, you—”

“I’ll get you your spoons. Merlin, that’s a ridiculous sentence. May I ask why you need them?”

“I don’t really think you’d like the answer,” Sirius says, getting up. Regulus sighs and makes him sit down again.

“Stay here, I’ll get them and be right back.”

“If you stand me up—”

Regulus grins. “Oh, you know me better than that.”

“Yes, I do know you!” Sirius exclaims. “Which is why I’m pretty sure I’ll be stood up.”

“Have faith!” Regulus shouts as he turns a corner. Sirius smiles. He’s definitely missed this.

Regulus doesn’t stand Sirius up. Two days later, while James is entertaining Remus in the hospital wing (they’re usually all there, keeping him company up until the moment Madam Pomfrey has to drag them out to get Remus to the shrieking shack), Peter and Sirius head to The Forbidden Forest where Hagrid told them his spider friend lives.

They took James’ invisibility cloak and two vials to collect the dew in. It was lucky that they took two instead of one because Sirius was not expecting Hagrid’s spider friend to be so big. He dropped his vial when he first saw Aragog and it cracked in half. He’s not sure whether Aragog heard it or not but he is so very glad that they got out of there without being eaten alive.

They’re sitting in a circle on their dorm room floor, now. The full moon is bright in the sky and Sirius feels a little sick. Lily gave them the moon ray vials that morning, they have the chrysalises (that thankfully hadn’t hatched) and the dew and the silver teaspoons, and everything has gone exactly as planned so far.

“I’m going to throw up.”

“Please don’t throw up, James,” Sirius says, swallowing.

“Nothing bad is going to happen. Not at this stage, at least.”

“Oh, thank you, Peter,” Sirius snaps.

“It’s true! We’re just going to prepare the potion and set it somewhere and wait.”

“Lily told me there’s an electrical storm in two weeks.”

“See? We don’t have to worry about the possibility of being disfigured for at least two more weeks.”

“Remus’ birthday is around that time, too,” Sirius says, ignoring Peter and picking up one of the glass vials. He spits the mandrake leaf inside it. “It would be lovely if we get this done before his birthday.”

“That would be sick,” James says, yanking at Sirius’ hair.

“Ouch, you—”

“Just put it in.”

Sirius would have made a crude comment then, but he was too nauseated to even think about it. He adds everything else to the vial (The hair, dew, and chrysalis) and he stares. “Should I shake it?”

“I don’t think so,” James says, trying and failing to yank at his hair. “Help me?”

**….**

They prepare the mixtures rather quickly, and they use different colored tape to mark which is which (James gets red, Peter gets blue, and Sirius also gets blue because they didn’t have any more colors. The tape on Sirius’ vial is shorter and more to the top. It ends up working fine). They put the vials in the abandoned second-floor girl bathroom, and they wait. After almost two weeks, just as Lily predicted, there’s an electrical storm raging outside.

James and Peter are staring intently at Sirius. Sirius doesn’t know why he always ends up with the worst tasks. “Uh, Remus?”

“Yes, Sirius?’ Remus is sitting on his bed, going over what they took in charms that day.

“Lily wants to speak with you,” Sirius blurts out. They haven’t preplanned this, and he hopes that Lily would connect the dots and play along. “She said it was very important.”

“Really?” Remus asks, putting his notes down. “I just saw her. She didn’t tell me anything.”

Sirius shrugs. “Oh, well. Maybe she figured it out.”

“Maybe… maybe I should still check, though.”

“Yes!” James exclaims. He clears his throat. “I mean, it seems pretty important.”

As soon as Remus closes the door behind him, James lets out a breath. “Oh my fucking— How did you think of that?”

Sirius snags James’ invisibility cloak and covers them with it. “I have no fucking idea.”

“You’re good with handling pressure,” Peter says.

James scoffs. “Yeah, right. Don’t forget your wands!”

….

It works.

Well, it mostly works. James is stuck. James is a stag, which has to be the most brilliant thing ever, but he’s stuck.

“I can’t believe I’m a rat,” Peter says. He manages to transform back, Sirius does, too. James hasn’t. They’re looking at a stag. Peter’s eyes are unfocused. “I had to taste mandrake every single time I swallowed for a month. I knew the transformation would be painful, but I don’t think I actually knew because that hurt like nothing I’ve ever— all of that so I could transform at will into a _rat._ ”

“Peter—”

“No. You don’t understand. My Animagus, the animal I resemble most in the deep crevices of who I am— vermin! I fucking hate vermin.”

“You’re stealthy!” Sirius says quickly, not taking his eyes off James. “You can go wherever you want! Look at those antlers. Do you think James could wander around with those?”

Peter blinks. “Why hasn’t he transformed back?”

“I think he’s stuck.”

James, stag James, is looking at them with doe eyes. He opens his mouth and Sirius swears he roars. Sirius and Peter flinch.

“Okay, get your wand,” Peter says. They try transforming James back with the counterspell. It doesn’t work at first, and Sirius is getting less amused and more worried by the second. They try it two more times before James starts transforming back and Sirius has never felt such pure relief.

“Holy fucking hell,” James says when he’s fully transformed back. He’s sitting on the bathroom floor and his glasses are crooked. He’s grinning when Sirius helps him up. “Holy shit! I didn’t think that was going to work _at all!”_

Sirius can’t help laughing. He feels giddy. “Holy shit, James. You still got stuck.”

James waves him off. “I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually. I’m a— Merlin. I had no idea I’ll be a stag.”

“I think I’m coming to terms with being a rat,” Peter muses, also grinning. “I mean, I definitely wouldn’t want your antlers, James.”

“Huh?” James’ eyes go wide. “I have _antlers?”_

“I feel like I knew I was going to be a dog.” Sirius grins.

“Oh, you are so full of shit. You had no idea.”

“Not even the slightest glimmer of one.”

They all start laughing again. “I can’t wait to tell Remus,” Sirius says.

“Yeah, let’s not wait. Can we tell him now?” Peter asks. “I know his birthday’s next week but—”

“Screw that! We’ll tell him now!”

They quickly get rid of the empty vials and gather their wands. “What should we get Remus for his birthday?” James asks, whispering. It’s definitely past curfew when they head back to their dorm. Sirius is glad James’ invisibility cloak is with them.

“I already got him his present.” 

“You bitch! What is it?”

“Chocolate and a self-writing quill,” Sirius whispers back.

“Oh, that’s brilliant,” Peter says. “He could use it around the full moon.”

“It _is_ brilliant. How did you think of that?”

“Hey! I do have my moments, you know,” Sirius says, grinning. He needs to write a thank you note to Marlene.

Remus doesn’t look up when they get back and Sirius knows there’s something wrong.

“What was up with Lily?” James asks. He doesn’t sound at all concerned.

“Nothing much,” Remus mumbles.

Sirius looks at James and Peter before clearing his throat. He feels like actually telling Remus is the part he’s most anxious about, which is _ridiculous_. “Eh, Remus, we—”

“Do you need me to leave?” Remus asks.

“What? Of course not. We—”

“Because you could just tell me, really. You don’t need to make up stories every time, I promise. I don’t really know what’s up with you guys, or what happened or if— it doesn’t really matter. I just definitely don’t appreciate _being lied to_ all the time. I understand if— What in the actual _hell?_ ”

Transforming the second time is a lot easier than the first. It feels more natural and there is none of that horrible pain (thankfully). Peter transforms instantly after Sirius does, and he climbs onto Sirius’ back. Remus’ eyes are wide and he turns to James.

James is fidgeting. “Surprise,” he says weakly. He starts to ramble. “I don’t want to transform right now because I’ll probably get stuck again, and nobody wants that, eh? We’re so sorry you felt left out, Re, truly, but we knew that you wouldn’t let us do this, so we had to do it behind your back. Sorry about that again. We know that full moons are the worst and we really wanted to do something about it. Werewolves are no danger to animals, right? So now we can—”

“Oh my god,” Remus says, his voice shaky. “Are they stuck?”

Immediately, Peter and Sirius transform back.

“You guys have to teach me how to do that,” James mumbles. Peter and Sirius are standing next to him, and they’re all in front of Remus. Remus’ mouth is open and his eyes are a little glassy.

“Oh my god,” Remus says, sitting down on his bed. “I can’t fucking believe— I had a whole speech planned about how— oh my god, you guys, I feel so fucking horrible.”

“Don’t!” Sirius rushes. “We probably should’ve told you, anyway. That’s on us.”

Sirius notices that Remus is crying. He lets his head drop and he’s mumbling words Sirius can’t quite make up.

“Please don’t cry,” Sirius says, sitting down next to Remus. James sits down on the floor in front of him and Peter on his other side.

“I swear I’ll start crying with you,” James says, his voice a little thick. “I don’t want to cry today so _stop_.”

Remus looks up. He chuckles and wipes his eyes. “I don’t even know what to say. Than—”

“I will turn your hair into hissing, slithering snakes if you thank us,” Peter says, flicking Remus’ forehead.

“And I’ll hide all your socks,” James adds.

“I’ll tell Professor Binns you volunteered to help clean his classroom.”

Remus laughs. “You don’t understand what this means to me.”

“Sure we do,” Sirius says, grinning. He’s glad Remus is smiling. “And besides, this was also very pleasant to our egos.”

“Oh, I can imagine,” Remus says, chuckling. He sighs. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this—”

“Stop talking!”

“—But I don’t think it could work. I’d never want to risk something like that. Werewolves aren’t a danger to animals but your Animagi, not animals and—”

“I am so glad we know how you think, Re,” Sirius says, summoning the pile of parchment Dorcas gave them. “This is quite a lot, and you can go over it later if you want but I just want to show you—” Sirius flips through the pages until he finds what he wants. “—aha! Here, we asked McGonagall about this and she said, and I quote, ‘Werewolves, on full moons, are only ever a danger to humans. If there is an Animagus in their animal form or even a metamorphmagus whose appearance is altered to resemble that of an animal’s, werewolves pose virtually no threat to them.’”

“The metamorphmagus part blew my mind,” James says.

Remus snatches the parchment from Sirius’ hand, and he skims over it. “This can’t be— how did you guys— is this actually what McGonagall said? You asked her about Animagi and werewolves and she didn’t suspect?"

“Well, we didn’t really ask her. We wrote it down and asked Dorcas to ask her,” Peter says.

“That’s— oh my god. How did she write all this down?”

“A self-writing quill,” Sirius says, and he realizes the mistake he made a second too late.

“Oh! Sirius you unoriginal piece of shit!” James exclaims.

“What?” Remus is looking between the two of them.

“Nothing,” Sirius says, glaring at James.

“Nothing!” James repeats, mouthing a ‘sorry’.

Remus shakes his head. “I don’t even—how the hell did you even manage this? Alone, too. Oh my god, you guys are absolutely insane—”

“Oh, Merlin. It wasn’t just us,” Sirius says. He’s maybe a little teary-eyed, too. “It was literally everyone. Dorcas and Lily and Marlene—”

“And Hagrid and his spider friends—”

“And Filch! Can you believe Filch helped us with this?” Peter asks. Remus stares.

“McGonagall, too,” Sirius says, smiling. “We really only had to do the easy part.” 

Remus blinks. “Holy shit. I want to hear all those stories.”

“Yes! We’ll tell you everything tonight.” Sirius says. “We did jinx it, though.”

“Which is literally not fair. My only rule was no whiskers, and I’m a _rat.”_

“Mine was no fleas.”

“I told them!” James exclaims. “I told them, Remus, and they didn’t listen. I literally couldn’t be happier with mine.”

“Which is…” Remus prompts.

“A stag! With antlers and everything.”

“That’s brilliant, James,” Remus says, grinning wide. “All of this is. Thank you, guys, I—”

Peter put his hands over Remus’ mouth, and they all start laughing.

Remus removes Peter’s hands. “I never thought I’d say this, but oh my god am I excited for the next full moon.”

Sirius agrees. He’s definitely excited as well. It hasn’t really sunk in, yet, but they did _that._ Full moons will no longer be as horrible and dreadful as they are now (hopefully). Later that night, when all four of the marauders are sitting on Sirius’ bed, James is making a lot of events seem more dramatic than they actually were, and Remus has never looked so happy and relaxed. They plan on going for a walk the day after, to see what their animal selves can and can’t do (and maybe to teach James how to transform back. Eh, try to teach him, at least).

Sirius decides, right then and there, to take Remus out on a date next Hogsmeade weekend. He’s going to get him flowers and tell him he’s loved him since maybe when they were both thirteen. It’s pretty sudden and rash, but Sirius has just successfully turned into an Animagus (at 16, no less) and he feels like he owns the entirety of the fucking world.

**_~fin~_ **

**Author's Note:**

> This was so much fun! The Animagus process/ potion steps were taken from [this](https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/web-how-do-you-become-animagus) and [this](https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Animagus) !!  
> If you're still here, hey! I hope you liked it & thank you thank you so much for reading! ❤❤


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